Display preferences

Rendering styles

Rendering styles smooth out jagged pixels or apply retro effects to the game graphics. You can pick a style in the Display Preferences panel or from the View ▸ Rendering Style menu.

Smoothing styles work best on low-resolution 2D games. For performance reasons, rendering styles aren’t applied to games in high-resolution (640×480+) modes.

Full Screen mode

To make the game window fill the whole screen, use the View ▸ Enter Full Screen menu item or press Cmd ⌘+F. Pressing it again will switch back to windowed mode.

While in full screen mode, you can Cmd ⌘+click to access the menu bar and the Dock.

If you always want to play games in full screen, enable “Start up games in Full Screen mode” in the Display Preferences panel.

Aspect ratio correction

DOS games were originally designed for display on 4:3 CRT displays, which would stretch the video signal to fill the whole screen. For modes like 320×200, this meant that pixels would be taller rather than truly square.

By default, Boxer stretches games to their originally-intended ratio. If you prefer square pixels, then uncheck “Always use 4:3 aspect ratio” in the Display Preferences panel.

You can also toggle this setting with the View ▸ Use 4:3 Aspect Ratio menu item.